Thursday, August 10, 2017

Phil Shenon on NPR

Phil Shenon on NPR - Thursday August 10, 2017

This show wasn't as bad as I expected. While "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross was getting ready for the Tonight Show, Dave Davies the reporter who questioned Shenon was surprisingly knowledgeable about the subject and Shenon is fine tuning his pitch.

There will be a free transcript of this program that runs over a half hour, and it will be rebroadcast at 7 pm EST, but I will sumerize some key elements.

It's apparent that Shenon is using the recently released batch of records to promote his book and theory - that Oswald killed JFK to impress Castro, and that while in Mexico City Oswald met with Cuban and Russian spies and announced his "plan" to kill the president.

And while he is described as an "investigative journalist" and claims to have an open mind, he isn't interested in any evidence except what supports that theory.

Actually Shenon doesn't start to get it wrong until quite deep in the program.

For Shenon, he says it all started in Hollywood with Oliver Stone's movie - JFK, that reshaped our thinking about the assassination and led to the JFK Act, that leaves - the irony of ironies, the President with the power to withhold the assassination records. They mention the Ted Cruz campaign incident and refer to "The Conspiracy Theorists in Chief.

Is there an index for the new records? No but an army of researchers are going through them.

The most interesting records to Shenon are the Mexico City records - "the mysterious chapter involving six days when we know he met with Cuban spies, Russian spies."

The official story that Oswald was a delusional misfit Lone Wolf is wrong.

From among the records released under the JFK Act include one from JE Hover that Warren Commission lawyers say they never saw - that speculates if Oswald was inspired by an AP article he must have read in New Orleans that quoted Castro saying he was aware of CIA maritime raids and plots to kill him and that US leaders are not safe.

This is an important document but not new, been a public record for years and should be carefully analyzed but Shenon uses it to hammer home the idea Oswald was "enraged" by the article and his love for Castro motivated Oswald to kill JFK all by himself, though he could have had encouragement, assistance and support from Cuban and Russian spies.

The evidence of this comes from the Twist Party hosted by Sylvia Duran - a surprisably easy to find Mexican national whose friends and family and government records dispute her denial about meeting Oswald outside the embassy and hosting Oswald at the Twist Party and his meeting with Cuban or Russian spies.

That's not how Bob Baer found Duran - who wouldn't have anything to do with him.

To support his contentions Shenon also uses June Cobb - a brace American spy who recently died in New York before he could interview her.

The FBI destroyed evidence and the CIA kept info from the Warren Commission to hide their advance knowledge of Oswald and his intentions.

Shenon quoted FBI spy posing as a communist reporting Castro's acknowledgement that Oswald told the Cubans of his "plan" to kill JFK, and cites Castro himself as the source of this story - but it's not - the FBI's fake Commie is the source, just as almost EVERY allegation that Castro was behind the assassination can be traced to an intelligence source.

Shenon says that former FBI director Clarence Kelly made the assassination a Research hobby and concluded the FBI covered up the true facts and could have prevented the assassination if they acted on the information in their own files.

Shenon falsely claimes new forensic techniques support the Single Bullet Theory and that Oswald was the only shooter - but we can't rule out the Cubans or Russians knew about his plans or encouraged or supported him.

But Jack Ruby a very troubled misfit, a mentally ill, delusional loser and "no conspiracy involving Ruby has emerged."

On the other hand RFK had a public and private view of the assassination, accepting the Warren Commission conclusions publicly but privately troubled that his brother's murder was "blowback" from what he knew of the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro.

No he is not going to wade through the newly released records, many of which are illegible, irrelevant and coded with pseudonames so you can't make sense of them.

He's going to wait for the Army of researchers to go through them - "the logistics of this is a nightmare," especially for the NARA - who will be rolling out batches of thousands of records at a time that will take months and years to go through.

What about the serious researchers? You must know each other? Communicate?

Well yes, but they don't like it if I don't endorse their particular conspiracy theory - though he tries to keep an open mind, and if there's anything in there they will find it.

Since these are the same angles being espoused and promoted by Gus Russo, Brian Latell and Bob Baer, I suppose this is the current agreed upon fall back position now that the Lone Nut-Lone Wolf story is totally rejected.

I will post links to the transcript and audio download of this show ASAP.